In Toronto, Wilson talks about his time in San Jose

All in all, Ron Wilson’s first sitdown with the Toronto media as Maple Leafs coach seemed a pretty amicable session. As many of you already know, the full 38-minute video is available on the Leafs’ web site or TSN.ca, but I can save you a little time and trouble if you’re looking for the San Jose highlights.

Here goes …

**The question of his relationship with Patrick Marleau came up and Wilson went on at some length. I focused on that in a print edition story tomorrow, but here’s what the coach had to say.

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Shortly after his May 12 firing, Wilson said, Marleau left him a message.

“Patty thanked me for everything I did for him, in helping him grow more as a person than as a hockey player, and that he would play for me any time, any place,” Wilson said.

The coach acknowledged the two had a difficult time during the 2007 post-season … “”Patty struggled in the playoffs, I might have overreacted — I certainly did.” But Wilson said the two quickly patched things up.

Wilson said Marleau struggled much of last season because he “”worried all year about a carryover and I kept reassuring him that nothing was going to happen and Doug did the same thing,” a reference to Sharks General Manager Doug Wilson.

Still, Marleau’s name appeared regularly in various trade rumors … and that didn’t help, Wilson said.

“His name was in every Internet column,” he added. “”I don’t know so much that Patty read all that, but his wife certainly did, and it affected his play. Once the trade deadline passed, Patty probably played the best I’ve ever seen him.”

Bottom line?

“I would love to coach Patty Marleau again. We had our differences, but I’ve had differences with just about every player I’ve coached along the way,” Wilson said. “”Patty is a great player and he’s going to continue to improve and he’s going to be a great leader in San Jose.”

I decided to call Marleau up and ask if all that was an accurate portrayal of how things went. It was, he said, except for the part about his wife. Other than that, yep, it went down as detailed.

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**Is it possible Wilson might bring one of his San Jose assistants to Toronto?

“A possibility? Yeah, that’s a possibility, but it’s still too early in the process,” he said, adding that Doug Wilson viewed Tim Hunter favorably as a candidate for the top job in San Jose.

“I do have a Plan A and a Plan B and a little bit of Plan C, depending on who is available,” he added.

“I truly believe Evgeni Nabokov will win the Vezina Trophy this year,” Wilson added, “and I used to flip a coin to see who should be playing — Evgeni Nabokov or Vesa Toskala. And that’s the truth.”

**Wilson suggested that the Sharks came close to acquiring Toronto defenseman Pavel Kubina last season.

“I guess he almost became a San Jose Shark,” Wilson said. “If he had, I might not be the coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. . . . That might have been one of the missing pieces in San Jose, a little more veteran presence and leadership on our defense.”

**Wilson said it was hard for him to say at this point if forward Mark Bell could help the Maple Leafs next season.

“Mark’s gone through a ton in the last couple years. Obviously he ran into problems before we even got to know him in San Jose,” a reference to his arrest after being involved in an auto accident and convicted of driving while intoxicated.

“We’re going to have to sit down with Mark and see where he is in his life and his career,” he added, noting that Bell has taken responsibility for his actions. At this point, Wilson, Mark Bell the person is more important than Mark Bell the player.

**Wilson said he knew about working young players into the lineup.

“Trust me, I’ve had maybe the youngest defense in the league the last three years,” he said. “If you protect those guys and find the right mentors, 18-year-old kids can play in the NHL.

“It’s a little easier to develop young people in San Jose when you have one beat writer, and one television camera one day a month.”

(NOTE: My five seconds of fame came later in the news conference when Wilson identified me by name. If I had relatives in Mississauga, I’m sure they would have been thrilled.)

**The forechecking style of play that Wilson used in San Jose was a function of the players he had to work with more than any particular any coaching philosophy.

“In San Jose we had a bigger team up front and a smaller defense,” he said. “How do you protect your defense? You forecheck like a madman.”

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

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Hmmm. Was the Kubina remark a slam at Campbell, implying that the Sharks would have won if they had Kubina instead of Campbell? Or did DW try to get Kubina AND Campbell?

goaliepuke

Penny, I don’t think there was anything more than the price would have been too high for Kubina. We know the Leafs and Habs were all drooling over Marleau at the deadline.

Linkster

“It’s a little easier to develop young people in San Jose when you have one beat writer, and one television camera one day a month.”

Ouch. Maybe the rest of the SFBA sports media stayed away because you were such a boring interview, Ron…

Linkster

Sorry.

What I meant to say was, “Maybe the rest of the SFBA sports media stayed away because your interview record was second to zero, Ron…”

Ivanomak

That was an interesting press conference, and I was surprised the press wasn’t harder on him. That’s ok – it’s all ahead of him.

If Sharks even hold a press conference when we hire our coach, it’ll be attended by five people, and I’d be shocked if we’ll have a video posted in the end.

Also, do you think DW will even bother speaking with Crawford?

Penny

Goaliepuke,

Kubina invoked his no-trade clause when the Sharks tried to acquire him.

Ivano

That was an interesting press conference, and I was surprised the press wasn’t harder on him. That’s ok – it’s all ahead of him.

If Sharks even hold a press conference when we hire our coach, it’ll be attended by five people, and I’d be shocked if we’ll have a video posted in the end.

Also, do you think DW will even bother speaking with Crawford?

SacramentoBen

I think a stiff like Hal Gill would have been more of a help in the playoffs than Campbell was….but like most of our Sharks, he had a great regular season and his playoff was poopy.

BC

Sorry, but this strikes me funny:

The forechecking style of play that Wilson used in San Jose was a function of the players he had to work with more than any particular any coaching philosophy.

The Sharks had a forechecking style of play?

Who knew?

Looked like a puck-control offense and a containment defense to me. Forechecking was what Calgary and Dallas did in the postseason, not anything that the Sharks have done since Wilson’s been here.

And I say that as somebody who thinks the guy got a bum rap in San Jose.

andy

I found the commentary regarding Marleau the most interesting. Sounds to me like coach and player got along just fine.

Tano

I believe RW may be suffering from common coaching symptoms, unfortunately it is not just limited to coaching:

1- selective memory
2- the older I get, the better I was

I agree with BC, if SJ was playing forechecking style this year, most of us must have been asleep at the wheel….

why would we want Crawford? Anyway, I cannot stand his purcupine hair style, it is just too weird and distracting.

SoCalSharksGirl

Ivano…I certainly hope not. I was so relieved to here he was fired in LA. I wuld hate to see him end up in SJ. I seriously doubt that would happen in any case.

goaliepuke

#3, Linkster and then Ivano, The media stayed away, and will stay because they don’t get what hockey is. David P is starting to build a great career hopefully, because he has the passion to be the beat writer in this “one-beat-writer town.” It helps that he gets it too.

I think there will be more than 5 Ivano, lol. Depending on who it will be, there will be more Canadian press here than bay area media.

Even though I don’t listen to Radnich, I can respect that he says, “I admit it, I don’t understand hockey, so I’m not going to try and fool ya.” Are you listening Kawa-clueless, and Raj “I’m going to China” Mathai?

GP

goaliepuke

Penny, that’s correct, but RW did say we were close to getting him. That may have been the only reason — his no trade clause. I can’t believe Marleau would have been the price though.

GP

goaliepuke

BC, that’s a good one.
But, on the serious side, I’m not reading anything more into it than what he said. Maybe, not really having a forechecking style is still a forechecking style. RW didn’t say what the style was I don’t think.

IMO, I think they did eventually try some left-wing-lock, ala Detroit. But, that kind of a trap needs to be worked on in camp.

GP

goaliepuke

Oh and Crawford — he may get a year or two off from coaching in the NHL anyway. His status has been declining much quicker than I thought it would.

And, thanks to that nut case Bertuzzi, he’s going to dragged down even further because Todd can’t stand the responsibility for what he did. If Crawford gets any penalties from that incident, it will make it hard for any coach — they’ll have to watch what they say all the time. Kinda like bartenders could get sued for serving drinks.

GP

http://deleted dickskylark

Stay far away from Crawford.

The one feeling I get from reading the interview is that Marleau isn’t going anywhere. I for one am glad, but we still have like 20 days left.

It also sounds like maybe the reason we haven’t broken that barrier is because of our young D men. Not an excuse, but a reason.

I think he called it a forechecking style because they would dump & chase. I only saw it about a million times. I know you guys did too. Heck the team has been doing it for years and years now.

Ivano

Dick -
How can you read RW’s interview, and get any sense about whether or not Marleau is going anywhere?

I do agree with you however that young defense has cost us again and again in playoffs. Look at Detroit – any young peeps running the blue line over there? What about Penguins? Or Phili? Only in Dallas you have a young defense, but even they completely fell apart against Detroit’s machine. I suppose we can only hope they sign more experienced people like Campbell and others while Carle, Vlasic and inexperienced Murray all get seasoned.

http://sharks.hockeyanalysis.com/ Cantstopthegrier

Goalie – the rumored deal was McLaren for Kubina, I’m sure DW would have pulled the trigger on both Campbell and Kubina if possible.

As for Crawford getting consideration in SJ, I’d say highly doubtful.

mdgolf

As many of you have pointed out I too got a chuckle out of RW’s “forechecking style” comment…he left out the part about backing off their own blueline, which the Sharks were quite good at.

Here’s hoping Todd McClellan and DW had a great meeting yesterday. There’s no “perfect” coach, but I like his cred, and if anyone can figure out what it will take to beat the Wings…who aren’t going anywhere…it is McClellan. He’s been successful at every level, he’s affordable (allowing ownership to spend on players) compared to someone like Tortorella, and he’s ready.

Linkster

Dick -

Ditto on Wilson’s “forechecking style” = dump and chase.

That was when the SJ forwards were in “attack” mode. In “defend” mode, the SJ forwards were hanging back to support the young defense while they gambled on making a successful d-zone exit pass.

It might explain a lot of the weak offense early in the regular season.

hockey Rob

I heard we are hiring Crawford.

j.k.

…I know that this is a serious blog. Sorry for the joke.

goaliepuke

“Wilson said Marleau struggled much of last season because he “”worried all year about a carryover and I kept reassuring him that nothing was going to happen and Doug did the same thing,” a reference to Sharks General Manager Doug Wilson.”

Ivano, that statement by RW reported by David P. You can infer easily that Marleau was never going anywhere and probably won’t either.

GP

http://deleted dickskylark

GP, thanks for expanding on what I was trying to say. That’s exactly what I meant.

y

Overall, Marleau has had a good career here in SJ. Franchise leader in many categories.
Everyuone tried to nail him to the proverbial cross after 1 bad playoff series. Marleau has an upside bigger than Kristie Ally’s backside, my hope is that he stays here for a long time.

Ivano

Thats what they were also saying about Joe Thornton in Boston right after he re-signed an extension in August 2005. Do you remember what happened next? There are no absolutes in hockey.

I have a feeling we’ll see a big trade on the draft day.

y

Ivano, you’re probably right….unfortunately.

GJ

Marleau is going to an Eastern Team. Kabs is in play. Funny thing could happen and he could end up in Toronto playing for Ron. I think Marleau ends in Washington for Mike Green myself. Dougie wants a first round pick…..he’s got the shakes. Oh and no deals on coaching, Doug is too busy with Soupy at the moment. The kid and his agent are just being picky…..